:1
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1842
527
race, shall display its bright folds in Liberty's triumph, on the isthmus of Darien. With the most appropriate considerations, I have the honor to present you my salutations. Sam Houston. 1 Executive Reco1·d Book, No. 40, pp. 574-591, Texas State Library; C. E. Lester, A1ithentic Memofr (1867), 211-224; C. E. Lester, Sam Houston and His Rc1mblic (1846), 183-197; Yoakum, History of Texas, II, 544-558; Brown, Hfato111 of Texas, II, 574-591; Crane, Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Ho1tSton, 349-369. These sources vary one from the other in a very few words. They vary considerably in paragraph division. 2 To explain in even a very brief way the communications between Santa Anna, Bee, and Hamilton, requires a statement of conditions in Texas-- especially diplomatic conditions-prior to 1842. Beginning with the victory of San Jacinto in 1836, various efforts had been made to negotiate with Mexico for the recognition of Texan independence, and for a definite settlement of the southern boundary of Texas. Mexico had repeatedly declined to receive Texas representatives. Great Britain (although its own recognition of Texan independence had not been formally completed, because an inactive Texas Senate had permitted signed treaties to that end to lie unratified for more than a year) and the United States had both attempted mediation and failed. Gorostiza, the Mexican minister to the United States, frankly declared his opinion that Mexico should go ahead and recognize the independence of Texas, but that he dared not risk so unpopular an act. In fact, the Mexican government during the early years of the Texas Republic was in about as chaotic condition as that of Texas itself, for between the years 1837 and 1839 there had been twelve changes in the head of the Foreign Office, and in 1839, the entire cabinet was changed. When this last change of cabinet was made, the report reached President Lamar that Santa Anna was again at the head of the Federal party in Mexico, and that he was likely to succeed in carrying out his plans. Believing the time now ripe, Lamar sent Colonel Barnard E. Bee to Vera Cruz as a Texas commissioner to make proposals. Bee arrived in Vera Cruz on the 8th of May, 1839. He was immediately informed that if he had no other object in coming to Mexico than that of treating for recognition of Texan independence he must depart at once. Bee departed; but first he issued a sort of manifesto, in which he reviewed Santa Anna's promises and treaties, and asserted that Santa Anna had not acted in Texas under duress. [See Bee's own account in Garrison (ed.), The Diplomat·ic Corre- spondence of the Republ-ic of Texas, 11, 432-456.] Bee returned to New Orleans, where he met a Mexican named Juan Vitalba, who claimed to be a sec1·et agent of the Mex-ican Government. From this man, Bee got the idea that Mexico would be willing to be bribed to acknowledge the inde- pendence of Texas. (See ibid., Bee to Webb, July 9, 1839, II, pp. 460-463.) It seems that Lamar was not unfavorable to the idea. (Ibid., II, p. 8'i3, Burnet to Hamilton, August 19, 1839.) From this time on there was a complexity of letters and negotiations concerning the recognition of Texan independence, the principals on the Texas side being B. E. Bee, James Hamilton, M. B. Lamar, and James Trent. The story of this diplomatic
I
I j
Powered by FlippingBook